Psychics and Shooters

Hey look, it's a Librarian! So I got me the Dark Angels Librarian model from the Dark Vengeance set that someone was selling solo. A simple matter of covering up the shoulderpad with a cloth piece and brutally hacking off the insignia on his chest and viola.

I'm going to do a step by step guide once he's all finished and have been taking pics at each stage. But for now here he is after the base coat and inking is done.

The front cloth piece is a bit lacking and I'm thinking of adding in an Ultramarines symbol, possibly something like this... (30 second photoshop mockup incoming!)

What are your thoughts, internet? Think it works? Have other ideas? Let me know!

But! Also! Another Sternguard enters! I kinda love this guy. The bionic head is from the Forgeworld character set and the ridiculously oversized belt piece you'll probably recognise from the Marneus Calgar model.

He's about two thirds done, a lot of tidy up work, basing, drill that bolter barrel etc etc.

Sternguard Glamour Shots

Three more Sternguard are finished. Here for your viewing pleasure are a bunch of pics with different angles and stuff. No expenses were spared!* No tea left undrunk!**

I decided to bust out some of my brass etch symbols for these fellas just to add even more levels of blingosity.

Battle damage on his shoulder pad! Pretty pleased with how it came out. Also made good use of my parchment decals on his right shoulder.

Another muzzle flash,  because why not. Also his bolter barrel was a bit lopsided (yaaay finecast) so this was a good way of covering it up.

Squad leader dude! I really love these Spartan style helmets.

Aaaaand that's it. NEXT UP: probably more Ultramarines of some kind. Woah.

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* A lie.
** Not a lie.

More Sternguard Progress

Hello there internets. How the heck are you? I hope Cousin Bob's rickets have sorted themselves out and that Aunty Harriet is still successfully evading the Feds. Anyway, enough about you, here are three more of my Sternguard squad. They're about three quarters finished.

This guy's the token GW sternguard sculpt of the batch. I generally like the finecast stuff, though it's still a bit wonky in places and one of the marines from this boxset is probably going to get a head swap before I paint him up. Pretty happy with how beaky's coming along though.

Squad-dude! He has a cybernetic leg from the Forgeworld character set. Other details include a combat knife on his back, a scroll/parchment hanging from a shoulder pad, terminator honours and some extra purity seals.

This guy's my squad leader, carrying on the tradition of squad leaders having the cool crested helmets from Secret Weapon Miniatures. I also gave him the Inquisition shoulderpad from the Forgeworld character set to represent a Deathwatch memento, plus a robotic arm because why the heck not.

Gallery Update

Just a quick note that I've updated the official lightbox piccies for my force commander, chaplain and command squad.

CHECK THEM OUT HERE YO.

OSL and Veterans

So I seem to have gotten the distractions out of my system and it's back to the Sternguard Veterans.

But before that, I finished the object source lighting attempt on the chaplain. I think it turned out pretty okay for my first real try (discounting the simple glow on the front of the Sternguard sergeant's bolter) though I can see where there's room for improvement.

Like it looks... reflecty, which is awesome. Mostly holds up under a casual glance, which is a good place to be for attempt 1. The crappy camera doesn't pick it up that well but there's a lot of faded out blue running along the parchment and up the back of his legs too.

I think becoming more aware of how different surfaces reflect light and also getting in more practice with controlling heavily watered down paint will bring about a big improvement. Onwards and upwards, yo.

Here is Sternguard number three, all finished. This is the first of the non-official Sternguard to be completed and I think he stands up pretty well with the others...

Group shot! Heavily light balanced in photoshop because the stupid digital camera insists on making everything come out yellow as hell.

Next up: probably more sternguard! Maybe more more adventures in OSL if I can find another excuse.

Bust A Move

My good beardy friend Vomkrieg got himself the Relic boardgame a while back and after a few games he's getting around to painting up the character models that represent the various 40K universe archtypes that you can play.


And well, since I'm the resident space smurf fanboy, I got the Ultramarine captain to paint up. Hurrah! Here he is. Took me about 6 hours all up, including having to completely redo an entire shoulderpad when like a complete bloody idiot I wiped green tinted brush-cleaning water all over it, didn't realise and then let it dry.

Handy size comparison!

Special Effects

Hello there, sports fans. Or people who hate sports, you're also welcome.

This week I've been trying out some new things! First up, inspired by the ridiculously awesome Khador models by Robin that I showed you all last post, I've been testing some glow effects on the Behemoth.

I think it's come out okay for my first try, I've found the main difficulty is getting a good, uniform brush mark in the feathering effect. Obviously you want an airbrush for a really amazing smooth blend and I'm pretty sure that's how Robin paints his minis, but I reckon with practice I can get mine looking better.

But wait! There's more! Here is my Ultramarines chaplain. I wanted to get the jump pack model for ages to lead my assault marines into battle, and then happened to see him on the shelf when I picked up a new boltgun metal leadbelcher from GW.*

See this clever thing that I did! Turns out that two of the muzzle flashes make for really awesome looking jump pack exhaust. I went with blue to give it an extra hot plasma/gas flame look, which I think works pretty well. 

The model isn't quiiiite finished, I want to see if I can make the OSL effect on the back of his boots and scroll parchment a bit better and more uniform.

Soooo yeah. Ongoing diversion from the Stenguard, but fear not I'll be getting back to them soon.

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*I really hate the new paint names and also other new things like that band the youth are into.

Smurf and Steambot Inspiration

I thought I'd do a short update on two painters that I basically go back to time and time again for inspiration and also a distant star to try and aim for (if not realistically reach any time this century).

The first is the Ultramarines painter known as Hazchem on the Relicnews.com forums. They haven't updated the thread for quite a while, but this is the kinda stuff that was produced.

While stylistically their work is very obviously 2nd edition inspired (and not a direction I've chosen) just look at those beautiful crisp lines. Not a dab of paint out of place, fantastic highlighting. This army would look absolutely amazing all assembled on the battlefield. The rest of their work can be found here, I really do recommend you check it out.


For the best Khador painting in the colours that I've chosen, I've never found anything that can beat Robin's work on the Warmachine forums.

I just don't even. They did a headswap on Sorscha! The battle damage! The subtle blending! And those glow effects! The gloooow! These go beyond Hazchem's fantastic work and into the realms of true showcase painting and yet there's also pics on the forums of these models trundling around a tabletop battlefield like some peasant's gaming models. Ridiculous.

For the rest of Robin's work, check out the thread here.


Do you have particular painters that you keep tabs on for inspiration? Drop me a line and let me know!

Crossing the Beams

Just when you all thought I'd completely reverted to smurfs BAM suddenly it's raining green soviet steam powered robots.

Needing a break from painting up my Sternguard, I decided to ink up my Khador Behemoth, which then prompted some more work after the ink was dry.

I really love the look of a warjack covered in a dirty ink wash.

 Here it is after I'd started working the green base layer back up.

DURING THE MEANWHILE here is the second Sternguard Ultramarine, pretty much finished except for the base.

And that's today's work in progress!

Veterans & Feeling Blue

So I was all finished with my veteran squad sergeant and then suddenly I remembered that I have a pack of muzzle flare attachments that I haven't even used yet. What the hell, Megapope. What the hell. 

Soooo here's the finished product with said muzzle flare attached. I also attempted my first ever colour reflection on the front of his bolter. It looks okay (better than this photo would indicate, anyway) and I'm keen to try again and better the technique. Mainly I just carefully layered up some watered down orange, trying to make sure you could still see the grey still underneath. 

Another angle. Because this is my blog and I'll do what I like.

And now I am onto some more of the squad. Getting through that initial three step blue phase is really tedious! And I still have 6 more squad members to go, groooooaaan. 

Having said that, I'm pretty pleased with the new blue recipe. After the three steps of Macragge Blue base, Drakenhof Blue wash and Altdorf Guard flat highlight, I then add another two line highlights of Calgar Blue, followed by a 50/50 mix of Calgar Blue and Space Wolf Grey. Then I use the Gulliman Blue glaze to tie it all together. 

I tried using the Etherium drybrush and to be honest I just found it kinda messy and not really to my liking. Much better to just add another line highlight and then finish with the glaze in my opinion. 

I'm finding that the extra step to Space Wolf Grey then blue glaze really makes the model stand out a lot better, without the brighter highlight being too eye-bleedingly ridiculous. 

Hurrah, tea and crumpets for all.